His Excellency the President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma has on Thursday 4th August 2016, during the official signing of the 2016 performance contracts with Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs); local councils; colleges and State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) warned all to work in line with the his government’s programmes.

‘Hold Sorbeh’ in our native Krio language means a state in which someone or an institution becomes extremely committed to achieving a positive goal. If we are to use the word in the contest of what the President meant, he is imploring all institutions to be extremely committed to achieving the goals of his Agenda for Prosperity.

President Koroma, whilst delivering the keynote address in the programme that was held at the Bank Complex, Kingtom, Freetown, acknowledged the pressures and challenges faced by various ministries, local councils, SOEs and colleges during the cause of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak that hit the country for the past two years now.

He however schooled the representatives of all the ninety-five (95) public institutions present at the ceremony to note that the contracts that is signed for the year 2016 would be a difference. He said since EVD outbreak is no more, ineffective institutions that are believed to be hiding under the umbrella of the outbreak, would be seriously penalised.

President Koroma recalled when he instituted the signing of performance contracts in 2008, he said he did so with the intention of establishing a culture of transparence in governance. President Koroma furthered that he believes that members of the public, civil society, and private sector must be integrated into planning government’s policies, and that will in turn help the government achieve its set targets and goals. His Excellency drew attention to the fact that before 2008, no public sector, minister, mayor or chairpersons could “account for what they have done.”

He praised the need for the performance contract as thus “re-engineering the public service commitment to achieve the government’s agenda.”

Furthermore, the President unreservedly called for collaboration and effective engagements between the private and public sectors; and inter-ministerial levels so as to enhance a cordial platform of executing government’s programmes.

President Koroma also commended the institutions that have performed excellently and urged those swimming within the fair range to strive hard and help elevate their standards. He warned all institutions to have a comprehensive financial plan before the start of the festive season. He frowned against excuses. He said “Ebola is no more, so no excuses!”

Whilst presenting an overview of the performance contract, Abdul Rahman Sowa, Director of Performance Management and Service Delivery (PMSD) Directorate, in the Office of Chief of Staff at State House commended the ministries for carving out plans through which they work. He said that shows that the entire country is planned.

He explained that the performance contracts are categorized into four clusters. Cluster 1 comprises government ministries, cluster 2 is for the 19 local councils across the country, cluster 3 is a category for State Owned Enterprises, and cluster 4 for tertiary educational institutions. These clusters help the government to adequately monitor the activities of all the institutions involved.

The programme was also followed by the symbolic signing of contracts between President Koroma, and selected heads of institutions. Others were asked to do their signing after the President’s departure.

Other speakers at the programme were: the Chief of Staff to the President, Saidu Conton, who expressed that the performance contracts helps heads of institutions to know challenges facing their institutions, and the vote of thanks was delivered by the Minister of Information and Communications, Hon. Mohamed Bangura who prayed to God for the President to be properly guided and to be given sense of good vision.